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Hot Wheels and Icon in sandbox battle

June 5, 2012

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As first reported by Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse, the toymaker Mattel has been accused of infringing on a trademark held by the low-volume vehicle builder Icon 4X4. Icon claims that a Hot Wheels toy being distributed worldwide is based on its Icon FJ40—which itself is based on the Toyota FJ40—and that Hot Wheels' use of Icon's design, promotional materials and the name “FJ40” violates trademarks held by Icon.

In its response to Tuesday's Hooniverse post, Hot Wheels claimed that the toy is not based on the Icon FJ40, and that it has the right to use the term “FJ40” despite Icon's trademark.

On Tuesday, Icon provided an image of what appears to be a heavily modified Icon press photo depicting an airborne Icon FJ40. The photo appeared on the Hot Wheels Web site but was removed by the company last fall.

While Hot Wheels stopped short of acknowledging that Icon's photo was modified to create promotional artwork for its FJ40 toy, Hot Wheels did mention the image and that it was removed from its site.